POSTAL workers could stage a fresh wave of strikes this week as their protest over working conditions continues.

Up to 4,500 employees in the North East are expected to hold another no-show unless a truce is reached between union chiefs and the Government.

More than 30 delivery offices across the region closed for a 48-hour period last week, hitting families and businesses with a mail back-log union leaders say could take at least a week to clear.

Some 2,000 staff at depots across Tyneside, Northumberland and County Durham stayed at home in a disagreement over working conditions and plans to modernise Royal Mail.

Already more than five million items of mail remain unsorted in the North East as the dispute rumbles on.

The postal workers say their protests are legitimate and justified, but is further industrial action necessary?

The Chronicle hears arguments for and against the strikes.

Page 2: Against strikes

Against strikes

ROSS Smith is head of policy for the North East Chamber of Commerce, an organisation that campaigns to further the interests of business in the region.

He said: "Many businesses have already found alternatives to using Royal Mail, whether it’s through using other postal firms or by sending items electronically.

"But thousands more still rely on Royal Mail for sending out orders, receiving payments and a whole host of other important communications.

"At a time when trading conditions are tough, anything which slows business down or forces companies to get distracted from their main activity is a headache they could well do without.

"More seriously, when cashflow remains a major problem, a large cheque stuck in a sorting office could be crippling.

"For many companies, the next few weeks are critical. A lot will be banking on a successful Christmas period – especially online or mail order firms which are reliant on the post.

"An end to this strike before it really damages these businesses at the worst possible moment is imperative.

"For the longer term, businesses simply can’t afford to deal with unreliable service providers at the moment and these strikes place Royal Mail in that category.

"If they continue, more and more companies will look to alternatives – which will further eat into Royal Mail’s market.

"The strikes are therefore adding to the problems the organisation faces and can only do it lasting damage if they continue."

Page 3: For strikes

For strikes

PAUL Clays is the North East secretary of the Communication Workers’ Union, which is spearheading the industrial action.

He said: "The postal strikes are as much about protecting a public service as protecting our members’ terms and conditions.

"Local businesses and the local postie want exactly the same things.

"A local business wants its mail earlier and delivered by the same person, and so does your local postie.

"The public, if Royal Mail bothered to ask them, would tell you the same.

"Our problem with Royal Mail is that their vision of modernisation, which is at the very heart of this dispute, is all about delivering mail later and later, and not starting to deliver the mail until later in the day.

"Royal Mail’s vision of modernisation does not deliver one improvement to the service to customers or local businesses, or the people who deliver the mail’s terms and conditions.

"The CWU’s vision of a public service is one that not only improves our terms and conditions, but improves the public service itself.

"Our only demand is that Royal Mail’s modernisation plans are agreed in an open way with the whole picture of their plans made public."